We’ve had a lot of difficult news to absorb these last few weeks. It would be easy to look at the Church’s current situation and wonder if we’re not splitting apart at the seams. Some have called this the US Church’s worst crisis in history (see interview below). So before sharing my thoughts on… [Read More]
The American Personality and our Mission as Catholics
It is a day to celebrate, to be with loved ones, and to pray for our nation. Let it also be a day to reflect on who we are, and who are called to be! What is our mission as Catholics in the US? And what does it mean to talk about our mission as… [Read More]
I Already Love You (The False Self Part II)
Since the last post seemed have struck a chord with y’all (I received quite a response!) I wanted to pick up where we left off, and give you my two best “signposts” for how to move forward in this whole allow-your-false-self-to-be-chiseled-away thing. Signpost #1: Keep your eyes fixed on our merciful, loving Father There is… [Read More]
The Crowd Mentality of Today (Conviction & Stress Part II)
When I was young I had an odd, somewhat unconscious anxious habit. Someone would say, “It’s like in that movie _______, ya know?” and I would say, “Yeah,” and they’d continue with their story. The conversation kept flowing, the other thought I was in tune with them, and all was well. Except that I had… [Read More]
Why Mary?
In our culture and our American church, I come across this question quite often – Why Mary? Sometimes its connected to other related questions like: Can you ever pray too much to Mary? How do I know if I’m worshipping Mary or praying to her for intercession? Does praying to Mary distract from Jesus? And… [Read More]
How does modern man best hear the call the conversion?
In this liturgical season of conversion, we are faced with the question: Just exactly how does “conversion” happen? How is change possible in our daily lives, and in a lasting way? I’d like to go deeper into thoughts from my last post, as a kind of part II (see: Living Lent Like a Little One)…. [Read More]
Living Lent like a Little One
Lent is a season of conversion, a call to repentance, a time of turning back to God. To me, these are Christ’s most striking words on conversion: Amen, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3) Unless you turn and become! We shall not enter… [Read More]
Meditation and Decisive Times
We live in decisive times. And while perhaps that’s always true in some way, I think we can say that in a particle way about our times today. I don’t have to describe it for you too much, because you live it as well. Tensions are high. The pace of available information is frenetic. And… [Read More]
An Age of Mercy & Misericordia et Misera
Last Sunday as we were celebrating the closing of the Year of Mercy around the Diocese, my friend and I were talking about how we were kinda sad to see the Year of Mercy end. She turned to me and said – you know how we had the age of Enlightenment? And the age of the… [Read More]
Therese of Lisieux & The Marian Jubilee of Mercy
It’s possible that St Therese of Lisieux is one of those saints of whom we hear so often that we think, well, we already know that story – next! Yet I think we often only capture her “slogan” of childlikeness, and in skipping over it, we miss the profound and prophetic truth manifested in her life…. [Read More]
A Labor of Love
We often get distracted from the best thing because we pursue many good things. This thought is the key with which Fr Patricio Rodriguez, ISP, opened up this passage from the Gospel of Luke in a recent homily: At daybreak, Jesus left and went to a deserted place. The crowds went looking for him, and when they… [Read More]
An Organic Approach to the Assumption & Queenship of Mary
I’d like to offer some thoughts on an organic approach to understanding the Assumption and Queenship of Mary. What do I mean by organic? Mostly I mean an understanding that captures the organic connection between ideas and life. For example, you think about it something but those thoughts don’t permeate your actual life, don’t actually shape your… [Read More]
The Door to Mercy – Knowing We Are Loved
For the opening of the Year of Mercy, I was late to mass. Late to mass! Imagine, this great event, once in a Jubilee, and I had even planned ahead to get out of work early – and still I was late to mass, and very late. Walking up to the mass-in-progress, I slid into… [Read More]
Advent: The longing in our hearts for Love Incarnate
“May the Lord make you increase and abound in love, for one another and for all, just as we have for you, so as to strengthen your hearts, to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones. Amen” (1 Thes 3:12) We heard… [Read More]
Bubble-wrapped Saints
Bubble-wrapped saints? Let’s take in that image…bubble-wrapped saints! How ridiculous, right? Saints are brave, tough, warriors and queens who sweat through struggle and shed blood fulfilling the will of God, steadfast and stouthearted no matter how difficult the task! But wrapped in insulating bubble wrap…? But, if you think about it, if we carried our… [Read More]
Something Greater Than Ourselves
In a little less than 2 weeks, on October 11, Bishop Joe Vasquez will celebrate Mass at the Marian Shrine of Our Lady of Schoenstatt, in honor of the Feast of Our Lady of Schoenstatt, and to give thanks for the first year anniversary of the Shrine. What might inspire us to go? What might… [Read More]
Back to Busy – Inspiration for Fall 2015
Fall is in the air! Well not actually in the air weather-wise – I wish! But despite Texas’ insistence outdoors that summer persists, this week kiddos are loading back into school buses, parents are cheering, teachers are groaning, and the boost of energy and activity seems to pervade many realms of economic and social life…. [Read More]
“Everything is Connected” – The Ecological Spirituality of Laudato Si
“Everything is connected.” This phrase of Pope Francis could be the link that ties the whole of “Laudato Si” together and also communicates the core of his message. “Everything is connected,” he says, in such a way that as humans and the earth are a part of the same ecological fabric, our actions in one part of… [Read More]
The Heart
This past weekend the wisdom of the Church invited us to experience a beautiful truth – the unity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Church led us into this discovery of this union by celebrating the Solemnity of the Most Sacred Heart on Friday that leads us into the Memorial of… [Read More]
El Hombre-Masa, el Nuevo-Media y la Reina de la Media
Recién he estado hablando con varia gente sobre nuestro uso los medíos sociales como Católicas. Ya todo estamos de acuerdo que la comunicación ha pasado por una revolución en los dos o tres decades pasados, ya no podemos volver para atrás. ¿Pero sabés que ya hacía tres decades, nuestra Madre Iglesia estaba contemplando como íbamos… [Read More]
Let Yourself be Surprised and Transformed!
I started this year in a different way: going on a mission trip with a group of Schoenstatt girl’s youth in a small, humble town in the countryside of Chile. Now I am convinced that there is no better way to have begun 2015! I am deeply grateful for all that happened; the experience was a… [Read More]
Dejarte Sorprender y Transformar
Empecé este año de manera diferente: yendo a misiones con un grupo de jóvenes de Schoenstatt en un pueblito del campo en Chile. Ahora estoy convencido que no hay mejor manera de haber empezado 2015. Estoy profundamente agradecida por todo lo que pasó y todo lo que Dios me hizo experimentar, regalar y sacrificar… [Read More]
To All Adults, at Christmas
I would like to give you, dear reader, this poem as a gift, in the spirit of the 12 days of Christmas and traveling with the Magi towards Epiphany, to give our humble gifts to the Christ Child. Many Christmas blessings to you all, and a joyful New Year! My dear Adult, ‘tis Christmas time,… [Read More]
La Media Social, la Familia: el Papa Francisco habla sobre una cultura de alianza
Momentos después de la audiencia del Papa Francisco con el Movimiento de Schoenstatt en Roma, sus palabras ya estaban repitiendo por twitter y la media social. ¿Cuales palabras? Las palabras que el Papa dijo sobre el estado del matrimonio y la familia hoy en día. Estas palabras fuertes y claras se tomaron rápido y las… [Read More]
New Media and the Family: Pope Francis speaking on Covenant Culture
Just moments after the Pope’s audience with the Schoenstatt Movement in Rome, his words were reverberating in twitter and in blogs. Which words? The Pope’s strong words about the state of marriage today. These clear and straightforward words were picked up quickly and passed on. The world of the media heard them. “Marriage has never… [Read More]
Come and You Will See
The tents are packed up; the rented chairs have been stacked and taken away. The land is empty and yet not quiet. Mulch covers large patches where grass will need to be planted. Bricklayers come each morning and work on finishing the main walkway. You can usually see the builder around finishing this or… [Read More]
The Presence of Mary
Mary has a presence all her own. I didn’t always know that – I didn’t always know her. I remember distinctly the first time I really felt her near. I was on a silent retreat, the first I’d ever attended. It was a 3-day experience of the Ignatian Spiritual Exercises. During the Exercises, you spend… [Read More]
Compaña & Resurrection On the Via Crucis
Today is the last Friday before Palm Sunday and Holy Week. If you’re like a lot of Catholics, you might pray the Stations of the Cross this evening. And if you’re like me, you might get stuck along the way. During Lent we don’t only attempt to pray the Stations, but ideally we attempt to… [Read More]
What Do We Do With Weakness?
I heard an answer long ago to this question that really stuck with me. It has helped me deal with my own weaknesses and short comings on my spiritual journey (I’ll tell it as best as I remember, I seem to have lent out the book* it came from). What do we do with weakness?… [Read More]
Groundbreaking of the First Marian Shrine in Austin
Making Austin History: Last Sunday, atop a small hill in Bee Caves, beneath grey skies and cold winds, history was made. It was the ground breaking of the first Marian Shrine in the Diocese of Austin. Approximately 300 people from across the Diocese and across Texas participated in the mass and groundbreaking ceremony. During the… [Read More]
In All Its Inexhaustible Richness: Neuroscience and the Heart
A good friend of mine tagged me this week in an article on Facebook, about epigenetics and the 9 components of mental health, by Dr. Gregory Popcak. Dr. Popcak does a fantastic job of showing the organic relationship between neuroscience and the heart, our brain and theology, between spiritual knowledge of man’s heart and scientific… [Read More]
The Organic Saint!
Here is something that I find heartening, and very telling, about the whole organic food movement. It seems to me that the organic food movement is a secular, concrete and very natural manifestation for our modern society’s hunger for harmony. We’re waking up to the damage we’ve done to our bodies and our social fabric… [Read More]
Msgr Mike Sis to speak at Gala to benefit first Marian Shrine in Diocese
Do you want to be a part of building the first Marian Shrine in the Diocese of Austin? Monsignor Mike Sis will be speaking in two weeks at the second annual Seeds of Grace Gala. The Gala is hosted by the Schoenstatt Movement of Austin, which is the local branch of the International Schoenstatt Movement,… [Read More]
